Healthcare One of the Key

¶ … Healthcare

One of the key changes in the contemporary world is the amount of information that is available through the Internet. There are three major components of this information world: data, information, and knowledge. In some ways, a comparison between these three terms is analogous to a comparison between and administrator, manager, and leader. Data, for instance, is factual bits -- plain, simple, and unstructured. "Mr. J's blood pressure is 180 over 110." When data are processed, organized, structured, or analyzed and presented in a context that has meaning, that is information, "Mr. J's blood pressure is 180 over 110, quite high for a man his age and condition. We should monitor this closely and, if it doesn't diminish within an hour, call a physician to administer medication." Generally speaking, it is not enough to have just data -- say the population of Montana in 1950. The only way data can be meaningful is to turn it into information -- analyze and synthesize that information into something relevant. Knowledge, then, is the application of the information into something tangible that one can do something or build something -- the "how question." Knowledge is not the end of the spectrum, though -- once knowledge is gained (on a topic) then the understanding of that knowledge should occur (why), and finally elevated understanding, or wisdom, which uses experience and data and information and knowledge to look at a problem in a more creative manner (Boisot and Canals, 2003).

A key, but important struggle in the teaching and learning of any issue in any discipline is to move from data (lower level thinking about facts), through a process of analysis, synthesis, and then finally creation. In the 1950s, for instance, educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom found that 60% of all education was being conducted at the bottom most level -- rote facts, disallowing any semblance of higher level thinking, which not only stimulates the individual, but revitalizes the organization as a whole. Additionally, the collection of data, and even the application of information, all deal with issues in the past -- only understanding and wisdom deal with future issues in any important manner (Bellinger, Castro and Mills, 2004; Overbaugh and Schultz, 1999).

Within the healtcare field, in particular because of the half-life of information and the way data is simply everywhere, often without adequate interpretation, one must take a serious look at the implactions of information systems in order to provide best practices and remain an advocate for the patient. One very timely and cogent example of this is within the realm of Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDS). These systems are interactive computer programs designed to assist medical professionals in the analysis and diagnosis and provide greater health care options at a more cost effective rate. The raw data that is used is the knoweldge base -- raw statistics about populations, trends, demography, and individual indicators such as test results, measurments, vital statistics and symptomology. Then, the process moves into information in which the inference part of the program takes what may be disparate data and combines it into something that may have meaning for that particular situation or patient -- or may not -- thus saving medical personnel time pouring over chart data. Finally, usuing algorithims in machine learning (computers learn from past experiences and patterns) and artifical intelligence (computers make connections that were not always aapparent, the system delivers recommendations for general care, additional testing, and appropriate procedures. The power of the system is that it is useful as a guide, not as a replacement- there is still value judgement, subtle diagnosis issues, and experiential levels that a machine cannot yet duplicate (Garg, Adhikari, McDonald, Rosas, Devereaux, and Beyene, 2005).